


Ineffability Is No Excuse

by Steerpike13713



Series: Morningstar Family Values [3]
Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018), Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Chloe gets curious, Dysfunctional Family, Episode: s02e14 Candy Morningstar, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Death, Lucifer has no idea what he's doing, Nephilim, Not a reveal fic, POV Outsider, Pre-Relationship, but he's doing his best, but she's definitely going to start digging, the whole great flood thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 20:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21654472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steerpike13713/pseuds/Steerpike13713
Summary: “...how did this- How do you have a kid?” she demanded, knowing even as she said it that Lucifer was going to make some awful ‘birds and the bees talk’ joke about this. She was not disappointed.“Well, you see, Detective, when a man and a woman love each other very much, but can’t conceive on their own, they summon the Devil in a complicated demonological ritual and invite him to have a threesome with them, without letting him know that pesky little detail that the ritual was designed to allow for interbreeding between celestial and mortal beings.”
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) & Sabrina Spellman
Series: Morningstar Family Values [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561111
Comments: 81
Kudos: 895





	Ineffability Is No Excuse

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to apologise in advance for this not being half as funny as the original episode. I'm not a great comedic writer, and it shows.
> 
> EDIT: I've had to make a few minor amendments based on a misremembering of when Chloe learns about 'Charlotte' and Lucifer's relationship.

In the end, Lucifer’s car got back to LA before he did, which did nothing at all for Chloe’s peace of mind. It had, according to Maze, ended up back in its usual spot outside Lux overnight, apparently towed back from...wherever Lucifer was now...at ludicrous expense. That was the only sign Chloe had had that Lucifer was ever coming back to LA.

It was stupid of her to be surprised. She’d _seen_ that parade of former conquests. Hell, Lucifer had wanted to get her into bed from the beginning but, more than that, he’d wanted her to fall for his charms. And now she had, apparently she wasn’t even worth a victory fuck before he moved on. She felt furious, and like an idiot, and like an idiot for _being_ furious. She’d been right from the very beginning, and even then, she’d known that Lucifer’s greatest talent was his ability to get people to say and do things that they should never have sensibly considered. Chloe was just another name on that list.

Even work, her usual standby when her personal life was in shambles, wasn’t much of a consolation right now. She’d thrown herself into it during her divorce, even when the Palmetto case had been rendering her professional life every bit as miserable as her private one. But then, she and Dan had never been partners. And that was not _in any way comparable_ , because she and Dan had been married for years and she and Lucifer were _barely_ officially together.

Still, a man was dead and they had their first solid lead. With any luck, this would turn out to be one of those open-and-shut cases that people kept telling her about.

“So, the band was right, the ex-wife was violent,” Dan was saying as they stepped out of the elevator into the precinct. “Look at these - she was arrested for domestic abuse two years ago. I mean, charges were dropped, but-”

“Detective!”

Chloe’s brain - and feet - screeched to a halt. She turned, slowly, half-expecting to find that she’d started hallucinating - which would have been just perfect, after everything - to see Lucifer walking up behind her, just as if he’d never disappeared at all, and for a moment, Chloe would have liked nothing better than to slap him straight across his obnoxious and _completely unharmed_ face.

Relief crashed through her almost as quickly as anger - she’d come up with so many possible scenarios for why he’d disappeared. Everything from ‘in debt to the Russian mob’ to ‘abducted by criminal associates’ to ‘got deported back to presumably England’ to a few wild three a.m. speculations that, oh god, it had all been true, and he really was in Hell at this very moment, none of which she would ever admit to entertaining in the light of day.

“You’re okay!” she said, taking two halting steps forward. 

Lucifer actually had the gall to look momentarily confused, as if he’d never stopped to consider that she’d been _worried_ , the childish, thoughtless, inconsiderate asshole. “What- Yes, of course I’m okay. Don’t be so silly.” He laughed, but it didn’t sound quite right. It was one of the light, space-filling laughs he tended to bring out when he was stalling about something.

She looked up at him, taking in for the first time the slightly manic edge to his smile, the way he was projecting ‘perfectly fine’ to almost effervescent levels. She- She wasn’t reaching, was she? Something had gone wrong for him while he had been away.

“Lucifer. I was really, _really_ worried about you.”

He raised a quelling finger. “Shh- Hold that thought. I need advice.”

Chloe laughed. She couldn’t quite help it. It was such a- such a Lucifer thing to do, in all the ways that had always annoyed her most about him, and in a minute she’d stop being relieved long enough to be furious at him for disappearing on her all over again.

“What...wow. You just-” and there was the anger, because of course, of _course_ he’d do something like this. “You go AWOL for two weeks, and then you have the _nerve_ to come here and shush me?”

“Yeah,” Dan agreed, taking a step closer at her back, “You have some serious explaining to do, man,”

“And I will do, just, before we start on the explanations...small humans.”

Chloe blinked. “...what?”

“Small humans,” Lucifer repeated. “When do they get to the stage where they’re more-or-less free range?”

Chloe blinked a few more times, as if that would suddenly make the situation resolve into something that made sense. “What- Uh...late teens, usually. Why’re you suddenly so interested in-?”

“Dad?”

Chloe looked around. Surprisingly, so did Lucifer. A teenage girl was standing at the foot of the stairs.

“Sabrina…” Lucifer said... _awkwardly_ , which wasn’t something Chloe was used to hearing from him - at least, not at work. “I thought I left you with-”

The girl rolled her eyes. “I keep telling you, I don’t need a babysitter-”

“As the detective here has now informed me, so that’s one less thing we need to deal with.”

It took Chloe a few moments to get her brain back in gear. There was an obvious answer here, but somehow she was still having trouble processing it.

‘Sabrina’ was platinum blonde, skinny, and maybe five feet tall. Five-two, tops. She could not have looked less like Lucifer if she tried. She also had the distinctive look of someone who had never been to LA in the summer before and regarded the precinct’s air-conditioning as possibly the only thing keeping her alive.

“...Lucifer?” Chloe managed.

Lucifer shifted uncomfortably. He looked...huh. He looked about as unsettled as he had the first time Trixie had tried to hug him. That same look of mortal terror combined with confusion about how he’d got into this situation in the first place. “Right,” he said. “Meet Sabrina. My- My daughter, as it turns out.”

It really shouldn’t have come as any sort of a shock - with Lucifer’s lifestyle, it would be more surprising if he _didn’t_ have a couple of kids scattered across LA, if not further afield. Somehow, that didn’t make it any less of a shock now she was actually _meeting_ one.

“ _You_ have a kid?” Dan demanded. “ _You_?”

“Unless there was anyone _else_ at that orgy,” Sabrina said, and she definitely got her snark from her father. Her...Lucifer was her...Chloe was still having a bit of trouble with that concept.

“It wasn’t an _orgy_ ,” Lucifer said, sounding all put-upon and long-suffering, “Orgies need more people and...about as much preparation, though with rather more in the way of clean-up.”

“ _Dad_!” Sabrina hissed, coming forward to stand next to Lucifer.

“You brought it up!”

Chloe watched the proceedings with a terrible sense of unreality.

“...how did this- How do you have a kid?” she demanded, knowing even as she said it that Lucifer was going to make some awful ‘birds and the bees talk’ joke about this. She was not disappointed.

“Well, you see, Detective, when a man and a woman love each other very much, but can’t conceive on their own, they summon the Devil in a complicated demonological ritual and invite him to have a threesome with them, without letting him know that _pesky_ little detail that the ritual was designed to allow for interbreeding between celestial and mortal beings.”

Sabrina had buried her face in her hand, obviously squirming with the absolute, ear-burning humiliation of having parents. In this case, that almost seemed like the most rational response. It wasn’t as if Chloe hadn’t occasionally wanted the earth to swallow her up when Lucifer started talking.

And- wow. Even once she detangled the metaphor, that was...quite a story, and one she...actually wouldn’t mind getting more details about, although probably not the details Lucifer would try and share.

“Fine,” she said, hoping it didn’t sound quite as brittle to Lucifer as it did to her. “Fine. So...you’re…”

“Sabrina will be staying with me for the rest of the summer,” Lucifer supplied, smiling in that wide, ingratiating way that was almost always a cover for something. “Possibly longer, depending on how this works out.”

“I do have to go back to Greendale when school goes back,” Sabrina said, crossing her arms. “All my friends are there. And my aunts. And- Other things.”

“Then you will,” Lucifer said, irritatingly calm. “Wait - is this the same school you burned down? Or is there another one in your postage stamp?”

Sabina made a choked-off noise. “You can’t- Dad, you can’t _say_ that, we’re in the middle of a police station!”

“In a completely different state with no jurisdiction over a high school burning down in New England.”

“I didn’t even go through with it! The- _He_ just made me agree I would so he’d leave my friends and Salem alone!”

Chloe was still processing that load of fresh, Morningstar-brand crazy when Lucifer looked around and asked: “Where is the feline menace, anyway? I thought he was with you.”

“Ella wanted to pet him, so I left him with her. He should still be in his cat-carrier.”

“You brought a _cat_ into the precinct?” Dan demanded.

“Into the _labs_ ,” Chloe clarified, rather more pressingly.

Another thing Sabrina had inherited from her father was the world’s least convincing expression of pure innocence. “Ella said it’d be fine.” She ploughed on before Chloe could reply. “We came here straight from the airport - Dad wanted to see you. He hardly talked about anything else the whole time he was in Greendale.”

It was Lucifer’s turn to look as though he wanted the ground to swallow him. 

“I’m...sure that’s an exaggeration…” he managed.

Sabrina snorted. “Yeah, he also spent half the time arguing religion with my Aunt Zelda, and interrogating me about _my_ life, but whenever I tried to get _him_ to talk about _his_ it was all ‘the detective’ this and ‘the detective’ that…” she smiled the perfect, innocent smile of someone who was clearly plotting something. “It’s...cool to finally meet you, after all I’ve heard.”

“...you too,” Chloe said awkwardly, “Though Lucifer’s never mentioned you before. Did- did you just find out?” she demanded, rounding on Lucifer. “Is that why you pulled that disappearing act?”

Lucifer looked, if anything, even more uncomfortable. “It...wasn’t the only reason, but yes, we both found out just recently.”

“And you couldn’t call? Or text? Or email? Or give some indication that you weren’t being sold off one organ at a time by the Russian mob?”

“Well, that’s just absurd. I mean, quite aside from the whole immortality thing, the nearest organised crime syndicate was the Irish mob in Boston, and that is one area where I am worryingly short of favours owed.”

Chloe glared. “You say that like it’s meant to be reassuring.”

“Well, you can rest assured that all my organs are all present and correct,” Lucifer said, with that same off-putting cheerfulness, and Chloe was just waiting for the inevitable ‘unless you’d like to check for yourself’...but it never came. Lucifer seemed to feel the lack of it too because he hurried on with: “I should...probably get the hellspawn back to Lux, now I know I don’t need to find anyone to watch her…”

“I literally told you that the second you brought it up on the plane! And I have to collect Salem from the labs…”

Lucifer shuddered. “Forcing me to share accommodation with a _cat_ , hellspawn, is a more creative punishment than any Dad ever devised for me.”

“Where I go, Salem goes,” Sabrina said firmly, and it did seem to be true, since it was about then that Chloe felt something soft winding around her feet, and looked down to see a black cat rubbing up against her ankles.

“Sorry! Sorry, I lost track of him!”

Ella came hurrying up, holding a large and luxurious cat-carrier in one hand, as the cat bolted for the stairs and was scooped up by Sabrina.

“Yeah, he’s...slippery. I should’ve told you about that before.”

“...you had a _loose_ cat in the labs?” Chloe demanded, staring at the cat.

“No!” Ella shifted guiltily. “I have no idea how he got out of that cat-carrier! It wasn’t open when I noticed he was missing.”

“He does that,” Sabrina agreed, shifting the cat on her shoulder as it tried to make another break for it. “I really should get him home. And start getting the apartment cat-proofed.”

Lucifer sighed. “The things I put up with…”

“Oh, get over yourself.” Sabrina elbowed him, rolling her eyes. “I- Sorry for causing all this trouble,” she added, because, yes, half the precinct was pretending not to be watching the latest drama. “Dad...had something important to ask you, apparently.”

“Well, he’s asked it,” Chloe said, a lot more calmly than she felt. “And the _rest_ of us have a case to get back to.”

Lucifer’s daughter. Lucifer’s apparent arsonist and juvenile delinquent daughter. And her cat. Of all the explanations for his two-week disappearance that Chloe had come up with, that had not been on the list.

“Well, we should definitely get on with that,” Lucifer said, a bit too brightly. “I’ll just-”

“Can I help?” Sabrina asked, in a tone of completely unconvincing innocence. “You talk so _much_ about your cases…”

“No,” Chloe said, with a sinking feeling. Great. Now there were two of them.

“I’m afraid the detective has a very firm stance against the involvement of spawn in casework,” Lucifer cut in smoothly. “I’ll just take you back to Lux. You’ll want to...unpack? Get your room set up? Get started on the cat-proofing?” He cast a desperate look at Chloe, who felt a terrible urge to snicker. She’d never seen Lucifer quite this wrong-footed, and his desperate flailing about was- Not endearing. Not in the least. She was still deeply unhappy with him for not having so much as texted her for two weeks after she nearly _died_ , and his utter ineptitude at parenting a teenage girl was not remotely cute or funny. Dammit.

Sabrina raised an eyebrow, tightening her grip on her cat as he tried to wriggle away again. “And if I don’t _desire_ to go back to Lux? Are you going to drag me?”

Lucifer’s face had gone very blank and Chloe knew, she _knew_ that he was going to give in.

“You can’t bring the cat to a crime scene,” she said shortly. “Or keep it here. I’m amazed you two managed to get in here with a live animal to begin with. And Lucifer is allowed on cases because he’s an official LAPD civilian consultant. You aren’t.”

Sabrina heaved a sigh. “...Lux is fine,” she muttered, as if she hadn’t been suggesting that same thing before she heard the word ‘case’. “Thanks for watching Salem for me, Ella.”

“No problem,” Ella said cheerfully. “I might come over and visit him sometime - he’s so _cute_ . You know, people talk a lot of shit about black cats, but this little guy is adorable.”  
“I’d like that - I don’t really know anyone in LA yet.”

“And thanks for watching Sabrina for me, Ella,” Lucifer added, “Even if it turns out it wasn’t strictly necessary.”

“Oh. Oh, cool. No problem. Didn’t...know I was meant to be babysitting, but…”

“Still don’t need a babysitter!”

“All right!” Chloe interrupted, “Lucifer, you can sit this one out.”  
“What- Detective!”

“Call it parental leave,” Chloe said firmly, trying not to focus on the surreality of that sentence. “Just- Take a few days, get Sabrina settled in, I’ll call you the next time something interesting comes up.”

* * *

Of course, he didn’t listen. When had Lucifer ever _listened_? It was probably a bad sign that there was still a fond edge to that thought, but Lucifer was like a stray cat - let it in once and you’d never be rid of it, and soon find yourself overcome by the temptation to scratch it behind the ears. Chloe walked out of her interview with the victim’s ex-wife to find him already waiting with Dan by the case board.

“I thought I told you to take this case off,” were the first words out of her mouth.

Lucifer shrugged. “I was going to, but watching Sabrina cat-proof the penthouse wasn’t _nearly_ as interesting as this is shaping up to be. Daniel was just filling me in on the details.”

Chloe shot Dan a look of profound betrayal.

“You can’t just abandon your kid every time something more interesting happens!”

Lucifer did not quite flinch at the word ‘abandoned’, but the look that flashed across his face then was close enough. “I’m not abandoning her. _You_ told me she was old enough not to need a sitter-”

“Not to need a sitter, sure, not to be left on her own in a strange city by her father who she _just met_ and is clearly so desperate to spend time with that she asks if she can tag along on a murder investigation just to get to know you better!”

It wasn’t as if Chloe herself hadn’t harboured delusions of Nancy-Drew-dom as a teenager, wanting to get that little bit closer to her dad, and the part of his life he’d always kept sectioned carefully off from her and her mom. She’d never been allowed close enough to an actual crime to carry them out, but she’d had them.

Lucifer looked rather as he had that one time he’d goaded her into shooting him and apparently discovered for the first time that he was not in fact invincible.

“...she was-” he actually glanced back over his shoulder, as if the kid was going to suddenly appear out of nowhere behind him...which actually wouldn’t be that bad a bet, given she’d already done that once today and apparently a desire to completely ignore any and all inconvenient rules was hard-coded into the Morningstar genes.

Chloe shook her head. “You can get people to tell you everything they want just by staring at them too hard! How are you so _bad_ at this?”

Lucifer sniffed. “Well, excuse me for not wanting to invade my spawn’s privacy and subject myself to the deepest, darkest desires of a teenage girl! Sabrina said she would be quite happy to have an afternoon to herself when I was leaving, so I took her at her word.”

“If we could get back to the case, Courtney’s story checks out,” Dan interrupted, thus saving Chloe’s eyes from rolling straight out of her head. “She _was_ working late with two employees at the time Ash was killed.”

Chloe nodded, “Courtney’s been pointing pretty hard at their divorce mediator, but I don’t know. Seems like a stretch.”

Dan rifled through the case files again, “Yeah, agreed, but I did check it out anyways. This guy called Anthony Annan. He’s got a clean record, and nothing but Courtney’s word points to him.”

“So what would you suggest I do, then?” Lucifer asked, having apparently entirely missed the entire conversation.

Chloe prayed to nobody in particular for strength. “Go home and spend some time with your kid, since you _clearly_ can’t keep your mind on the job.”

And now he was- He was actually bringing out the puppy eyes. Well, if they didn’t work for Trixie, they weren’t going to work for him.

“What? But- What about our partnership?”

Chloe gritted her teeth. She had been so, so very tempted to give up on him completely this morning. She still was. Except- Except he’d come straight to her the moment he got back to ask her advice about what to do about his long-lost kid, and had apparently spent most of these last two weeks gushing about her to said kid. Who was, it turned out, the whole reason he’d vanished in the first place, and while she was still so very, very far from forgiving him...she’d seen enough of Lucifer’s issues to know just how bad the breakdown about _that_ little discovery must have been.

She wasn’t going to let him right back into her life as if nothing had ever happened. She didn’t know what this was going to mean for...whatever they’d been starting to become before the Carlisle case...but that didn’t mean it had to be the end of everything. Just…not right now.

“You can’t just march right back in here like nothing’s wrong,” she said. “You ghosted me, and the whole department, for two weeks. For all we knew, you were dead in a ditch! Do you have _any_ idea-” she broke off, fighting to get herself under control. Dan, she noticed, had disappeared again, in a rare display of tact. “I know it must’ve been...rough...for you. I know you have enough daddy issues you ought to give out monthly subscriptions. But if you thought to have your apartment packed up before you left, you could’ve thought to leave us a message. That’s still on you. And I can’t- I can’t _deal_ with you right now. And you clearly have bigger concerns.”

She knew she’d got through to him, because Lucifer’s face went carefully blank, his eyes darkening almost to black.

“...right,” he said, more an exhale than anything else, and left without another word.

Chloe turned back to the board, trying not to feel off-kilter from the sudden absence of Lucifer at her back. It was ridiculous - she’d worked alone for months after Palmetto, and never felt the lack of any of her previous partners - and it annoyed her on some level she didn’t want to examine too closely.

“Lucifer gone?” Dan asked, reappearing at her shoulder.

“Yup.” Chloe gestured to the board. “So, the mediator?”

* * *

Annan knew his rights, and wasn’t afraid to use them, which wasn’t suspicious, in and of itself, but was definitely inconvenient. And with nothing more pointing to him than the word of the victim’s ex-wife, they couldn’t get one.

And of course, that was the moment Lucifer chose to call her up to announce his _brilliant_ new idea of going undercover as a divorcing couple. _And_ that he’d already booked an appointment with the mediator, claiming that the discovery of his teenage daughter had led to a rift developing between him and his partner of the last year. Angry at him as she was, it was hard not to admire the neatness of that bit of phrasing. Every word perfectly true, just in completely the wrong context.

She hadn’t been keen on the idea, and wasn’t it just Lucifer all over to pull something like this when she’d _told_ him they didn’t need him on this case, but without a warrant, they didn’t have many other options. She could’ve gone with Dan, but the risk of someone recognising his voice from when he’d phoned up asking questions was too great, and anyway, affording this guy’s services on a public servant’s salary wasn’t plausible enough, so Lucifer it would have to be.

It was the smart move. That didn’t mean that Chloe had to like it, but it was the sensible thing to do if they wanted to find out who murdered Ash, and it was nothing she hadn’t done before, with Lucifer, or with other people, if she’d needed to. Completely professional.

Maze was in the kitchen when Chloe got in, making coffee, and of course she’d left the counters in a complete state. They were going to get roaches, if they kept this up, and they did _not_ have money to spare for an exterminator. Chloe grabbed the cleaning supplies and set to furiously, trying to ignore Maze watching her.

“So,” Maze said after a few minutes of this. “Is she actually his?”

Chloe could’ve growled. She didn’t _want_ to talk about this. Lucifer and his private life weren’t any business of hers, he’d made that quite clear by ghosting her for two straight weeks and then popping up again like it was nothing. 

“He says she is,” she said stiffly. “And it’s _Lucifer_ , he doesn’t lie. And even if he did...you know his stance on kids. He’s not about to bring one home with him unless he absolutely has to.”

“That’s true. What do we think of her?”

Chloe put down the bottle and considered. “...she’s got a rap for arson, apparently, though they made it sound like someone was pressuring her into it. She’s _definitely_ got Lucifer wrapped around her little finger. You know he was going to let her onto a murder investigation?”

Maze snorted. “Don’t tell your offspring that. You’ll never get rid of her.”

“I didn’t _let_ him!” Chloe snapped. “I just- I’m worried. Troubled kid from some small town in New England, and now she’s living with Lucifer above ‘LA’s premier sex club’? I _know_ how much trouble a kid that age with too much money and too much fame can get into in this city, and she’s just had it all dropped on her at once.”

She’d been badgered by the press long before Hot Tub High School, after all, as Penelope Decker’s daughter. It might not be A-list celebrity, but that didn’t stop the vultures, and even Chloe’s relatively strait-laced teenage years had produced their share of horror stories still floating around the internet to this day.

“And given all it took to make Lucifer fold like a cheap suit is one ‘what are you going to do to make me’, which- I _get_ that he has controlling parent issues, but that doesn’t mean he should just let her get away with anything she wants-”

“Huh.” Maze took a long, slow sip of coffee. “Don’t know why you’re so worked up about it. It isn’t your offspring.”

“I’m not!” Chloe said, a bit too emphatically. “I just- He’s not dependable. These last two weeks proved that. And- Ok, yes, it turns out he had good reasons for leaving, if he was really in New England finding out about Sabrina, but that’s not the same as it being okay to just- disappear like this. And if he was willing to do that to us…how long before he decides it’s all right to disappear on her?”

Trixie had missed Lucifer too - she’d kept asking when Lucifer would come back long after Chloe had decided he never was. And it wasn’t the same thing, but if it was that bad for Trixie, who saw Lucifer as something like a favourite uncle, how much worse was it going to be for his daughter, who didn’t know anyone else in LA?

“I’m not saying he won’t do it,” Maze said, “Disappear, do stupid, impulsive things. But he always comes back around, Chloe.”

It didn’t sound like she was talking about Sabrina anymore.

Chloe drew in a breath, let it out. “That’s- Not enough. Not for this. Not if he wants to _commit_ to something. You can’t just- I know he wasn’t just- Just running off to indulge himself, and this wasn’t...stupid, or impulsive, or anything like that. I get that. She’s his _kid_ , of course he had to go. And I’m glad he’s taking responsibility, I just- He had responsibilities here too. He could’ve let us know. It’s not as though anyone would’ve begrudged him the time away if he’d just called to explain.”

Maze was wearing an odd expression, almost guilty, but quickly covered it with another sip of coffee. “Maybe the two of you really do need that mediator,” she said, ignoring Chloe’s frustrated huff in answer. “Just saying.”

* * *

Except, dammit, that they really _did_ need to see that mediator. And to make it look convincing. Undercover work was always uncomfortably revealing, when done with Lucifer, because no matter how much truth-twisting he might do, he did need some kind of truth to start out with.

Thankfully, since they were supposed to be divorcing, nobody was going to bat an eye at them arriving separately, or at how mismatched a pair they made on the mediator’s couch, sitting there looking like separate halves of two different couples. She _refused_ to be insecure about that. She could’ve had that lifestyle, if she’d kept acting, if she’d wanted it. She hadn’t, and she didn’t, and she wasn’t going to be made to feel lesser for choosing to do something useful with herself instead.

“So, Mrs Morningstar,” Annan said. “Why do you want to divorce Lucifer?”

“Um…” Chloe managed. “I just- We’re supposed to have a _partnership_ , here. Have each other’s backs. And I thought we did, until…”

“Until your stepdaughter entered the picture?” Annan said gently.

“No!” Chloe said, making Lucifer look around, startled. “No. That is- I don’t have anything against Sabrina. She seems...a nice enough kid, but I mean, I don’t know her that well. It’s- He disappeared on me. For two weeks. Not a word. Not so much as a _text_. He could’ve been dead in a ditch or in Vegas with some radish and I’d never have known until he came back with a sixteen-year-old and a story about some orgy he’d been part of seventeen years ago when he didn’t bother using protection!”

Annan hummed. “And you two have been married for…”

“We’ve been _together_ ...just over a year now, isn’t it, darling?” Lucifer supplied. Going from their first case together, Chloe thought. Delilah’s murder. And no, she was _not_ going to find that strangely sweet. It was a convenient half-truth, and that was all. 

She nodded, a little stiffly. “Sounds about right. It feels longer.”

“Well,” Lucifer said hurriedly, “We’ve...been through so much together in that time, and I’d say that we work brilliantly together.”

Chloe snorted. “Hard to say that when you clearly don’t trust me enough to let me in! Every time I think we’re- getting closer, or whenever you’re dealing with anything personal, you always do this! Disappear or close off or just- just don’t _talk_ to me- Do you have any idea how many problems we could’ve avoided if you’d just-”

“I’ve never told you anything but the truth,” Lucifer said, in an irritatingly reasonable sort of voice, as if that was anything like enough.

“That’s not the same thing as being honest!”

Annan coughed. “And...would you say that’s the crux of your issue?”

“No, the _crux_ is still Lucifer ghosting me for two weeks when I’d have understood everything if he’d just thought to call and tell me he was still alive!”

Annan nodded, gesturing at Lucifer. “And- Lucifer, would you like to respond?”

Lucifer shifted, resting an elbow on the back of the couch and half-turning to face Chloe, who remained facing stubbornly forward, so that she could only see him out of the corner of her eye. 

“This is going to be hard for you to understand,” he said, half-raising his hands placatingly, “But-” he swallowed. “I’ve been through Hell recently. Both figuratively and literally. True torment, my greatest fears realized.”

“Lucifer,” Chloe snapped, leaning in towards him, reaching for him blindly with one hand before she realised what she was doing and pulled back. “ _I_ am the one who almost died!”

“Yes, I know,” Lucifer snapped, his hands opening and closing in his lap. “That is what I’m talking about.”

“That-” Chloe started, then closed her mouth. It was- Something she’d needed to hear, just after she’d got out of hospital, when she’d gone to the penthouse and found him gone, with no sign he’d ever be coming back. But that didn’t make it something she needed now. “That is exactly the problem. Every time, Lucifer! Every time something hurts you, you go off on your own to lick your wounds and won’t let anyone in. And I get- I get that it was hard for you, but did you never stop for a moment to think about what it was like for _me_ to wake up in the hospital and find you gone? You can say you care about me - maybe you even do! But that doesn’t give you the right-” she broke off. “I need to be able to rely on you. And so does Sabrina. Have you thought about that?”

Lucifer had gone blank again, and it was very hard not to see that, now, as just another form of running away.

“I thought...it would be better,” he said, sounding oddly hollow.

Chloe snorted. “How would it be better? I needed my partner, Lucifer. And- And I know, I know that Sabrina had to take priority, I get it, and I’d probably have done the same thing if it were Trixie, but if you’re going to keep doing this, I’m not the only one who’s going to get hurt.”

Lucifer went very still. “I-” he started. “I need to go.”

He walked out of the room without another word, and Chloe half wanted to scream at him before she remembered that they were not, in fact, here to resolve the marital issues they _didn’t have_.

Annan sighed. “Let’s take five, then see if we can’t work this out.”

“Fine,” Chloe said irritably. All right. Uncomfortably revealing as that bit of the conversation might have been, time to move on to the second part of the plan. Nobody would believe Lucifer trying to get his hands on Chloe’s assets, when he was richer than any one person could ever need to be, even though Lux had been running at a loss from the moment it was founded, so this was Chloe’s part of the job.

Unfortunately, trying to angle for an under-the-table deal didn’t work nearly as well as expected, so it was back to getting Lucifer to hypnotise people, or however it was his desire mojo worked. That pointed them right back at the band.

As they were leaving, however, Lucifer said:

“I...didn’t leave because of the hellspawn.”

Chloe blinked at him. “What?”

“I didn’t find out about Sabrina until about a week into my disappearing act.” Lucifer was staring fixedly ahead now, avoiding her eyes.

She shook her head. “Why...why are you telling me this?”

“ _Because_ , Detective, I will not have you think more highly of me than I deserve. Despite your usual insistence on doing so anyway.”

It was honesty. _Real_ honesty, not just the avoidance of outright lies. And just then, it was infuriating, because what was _wrong_ with this ridiculous self-sabotaging idiot?

“Then why did you go?” she demanded.

He didn’t seem to have an answer for that.

Chloe let out a breath. “Forget it. Go home. Sabrina needs you more than I do.”

She was a few steps away and opening her car door when Lucifer said, behind her.

“What would- what did you do, after the urchin was kidnapped?”

Chloe stopped, and looked around. Lucifer looked...worried. Sincerely worried, life-or-death-situation worried. And tired. The way he’d looked at Halloween, when he’d turned up to a case half-drunk and homeless-looking and ended up putting himself between a victim and a sniper’s bullet.

“Why’re you asking?” she said, except, she knew. “Is- Sabrina said someone forced her into burning her school down…”

Lucifer nodded. “Yes. I...probably shouldn’t have mentioned that at the precinct.”

“Oh, you think?”

“Clearly not, but-” he frowned. “I was…I suggested she might want to talk to Doctor Linda, but…”

“Did...something happen?” Chloe tried. “Who was pressuring her?”

Lucifer’s expression would’ve been frightening, to someone who didn’t know him. “An entity claiming to be me.” He paused. “The rest of it...really isn’t my story to tell, but…she doesn’t trust me with all this yet. And everyone else she might talk to is in Massachusetts, in a sleepy little town I’m not sure has the internet yet.”

Chloe rubbed her face with one hand. “I- I really don’t know, Lucifer. It’s not the same as it was with Trix and Malcolm. But- I’d say getting her to see Linda would be a good start.”

“Yes,” Lucifer said, drawing out the word to obscene and obnoxious lengths. “The problem is, the hellion’s refusing point-blank, and I don’t want to force her, because...well, she’s been forced into far too many things by far too many people, but…”

“But you’re spectacularly unqualified for anything involving other people’s emotions when you aren’t using them for your own advantage,” Chloe supplied, which she might’ve considered a bit harsh two weeks ago, but definitely didn’t right now.

“You see my problem.”

What she didn’t see was why it was now, apparently, also _her_ problem.

“Teenagers...really aren’t something I have the experience for yet,” she admitted. “You should probably talk to Linda.”

“Yes, but...until then...what do I do? What did you do, when it was your offspring?”

Chloe considered. “I guess...I put aside more time for her. Dan did too. Made plans to do things she likes in the near future...It’s supposed to help re-establish a sense of normalcy, but that’s...not really relevant in this case. And she’s older anyway.” She shrugged. “I really don’t know what to tell you. I’m...really not an expert.”

“I don’t have many other decent examples to draw from, now, do I?”

From everything Lucifer had ever mentioned about his family, that was more than likely true. But what did Chloe know about trauma recovery? She’d been flying blind with Trixie, after the abduction. She still was - Trixie still woke up crying sometimes from nightmares she wouldn’t talk about, still struggled with her schoolwork when she’d been doing well before that night, still wasn’t socialising as she used to with the other kids in her class - and now Lucifer was asking her about something she didn’t know the full details of, but which sounded much more long-term than that one terrible night, and she didn’t have the experience or the information to _tell_ him.

 _Forced into far too many things by far too many people_...it was hard work, keeping her imagination from going to some truly horrifying places, just on the strength of that one sentence. And by somebody who had told her that he was her father. Chloe’s stomach twisted.

“...I know you don’t want to force her into anything,” she said carefully, “But in this case...if she wanted to go without- without treatment for any other sort of problem, would you let her?”

“No,” Lucifer said, sounding affronted, “Of course not, you humans are far too breakable - bit of a design flaw, really.”

“And the money obviously isn’t an issue for you.” It was hard not to sound a little bitter at that, with how prohibitively expensive getting help for Trixie had been. “So...I’d try, at least for one session. I’d have done it for Trixie, if it’d been an option.”

Lucifer blinked. “...why wouldn’t it be?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“ _Because_ , Lucifer, for the rest of us, the money _is_ an issue!”

“You could’ve asked me,” he said, as if it were obvious.

Chloe bridled. “No, I couldn’t- I couldn’t ask you to-” She cut herself. “I...should get back to the precinct, follow up this lead on Marla. You…go home. Just go home. I don’t need you on this one.”

For once, Lucifer went.

* * *

The lead panned out. First case of murder by musical instrument that Chloe had ever had to deal with, though Ella said that there had been a couple of previous cases, including one where an intelligence organisation modified a flute to serve as a makeshift gun that sounded like something out of a Bond movie.

Marla wasn’t even hard to find. At least, not after Lucifer’s intervention. Because, of course, he’d shown up too. And started singing.

And, all right, yes, maybe it had been just the slightest bit romantic. Not just the singing, or the dedication, or even the song itself, an old favourite that Lucifer had teased her about, when he’d caught her singing along to it on the radio on a long stakeout. All of that, and he’d used it to help her solve this case, corner Marla and get that bass into evidence where it belonged.

Now, if only he’d stop messing around with said bass, Chloe could get on with forgiving him for the disappearing act, even if _forgetting_ still wasn’t on the table.

Thankfully, Ella came in before Lucifer could get more than a few bars into his new personal theme song.

“Okay, it was wiped down pretty good,” she said, coming around the table to face Chloe and Lucifer across it, and holding up a printout of the results. “But I found traces of Ash’s blood on the tuning knobs.”

“What, so Marla’s the killer?” Lucifer said, obnoxiously cheerful, “Murder solved!” he laughed, setting the bass down on the table. “And I _believe_ that proves just how much this department needs me. Including you,” he added, turning to face Chloe, who stared back up at him in astonishment.

“Wait- _That_ was what that stunt back at the concert was about?” Chloe demanded. “You were trying to prove-”

“And succeeding, from where I’m standing!”

“Lucifer!” Chloe shook her head. “You didn’t- This isn’t about ‘proving’ yourself! I said I didn’t need you _on this case_ . I’m pissed at you, and I’m probably going to be pissed for a while, especially now it turns out you _didn’t_ disappear because you were panicking about suddenly having a kid, but that’s not-” not the same thing as never wanting to see him again.

Lucifer was still staring at her, fixedly, hanging on the end of her sentence, and what was she supposed to do with that? Chloe groped for words, and found none.

“Uh...hate to break this up, except not really, ‘cause this is getting really uncomfortable, but...Luce, your kid’s here?”

Lucifer startled, and looked around. Chloe looked too. Ella was right. There was Sabrina, without the cat this time, and...actually, looking pretty seriously freaked out.

Lucifer’s expression went from teasing to dangerously blank like a switch being flipped.

“...what did they do?” he muttered, nearly a growl, and stalked straight out without another word. Chloe watched as he put a hand on Sabrina’s shoulder, gently steering her into an empty office and closing the door behind her.

“...what do you think that’s all about?” Ella asked, looking more than a little freaked out herself.

“No idea,” Chloe lied. “I should catch up with Dan, interview Marla. This isn’t closed yet.”

And it wasn’t going to be for a while yet, it turned out, since Marla had a solid alibi with video evidence, which pointed the investigation at yet another member of the band. She and Dan were just about to head out after the guy when Dan ducked out at the sight of Lucifer, leaning on one of the glass walls near Sabrina’s chair and looking absolutely, coldly furious, in a way Chloe had only seen a handful of times before.

She sighed, and walked over.

“Marla’s got an alibi,” she said, without preamble. “Video evidence puts her at a club with some kid at the time of the murder - she’ll get booked for the fake IDs she was selling, and for contributing to delinquency of a minor, but she’s not good for this. Last person who had her bass was the drummer.”

“Well, you’ll want to get right on that, then,” Lucifer said, with a poor attempt to sound like his usual self. It sounded brittle to Chloe, a thin shell over the sort of rage that normally ended with someone gibbering and screaming about Lucifer really being the Devil. She’d never figured out how he managed that trick.

Chloe took a deep breath, reminded herself that she’d barely wanted Lucifer along for most of this investigation. “Dan’s going to stay here and do Marla’s arrest report - I need backup.”

Lucifer’s eyes met hers, and then flicked away towards Sabrina. “I have...other things to deal with,” he said darkly, “You were the one that said I couldn’t abandon all my responsibilities in favour of just one - or was that only meant to apply when the responsibility being abandoned was to you?”

“Dad,” Sabrina hissed, “It’s fine, you can go. They’re not going to come looking for me here, and even if they do, it’s not like they can start anything...you know...around the mortals.”

Chloe felt an odd knot of worry. “‘They’?” she asked, knowing that she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“My family,” Lucifer said shortly. “My mother didn’t take to the hellspawn, unfortunately. Can’t think why.”

“I’m not exactly her biggest fan either,” Sabrina muttered. “But this is an actual _murderer_ , right? You can’t just leave one of those wandering around!”

“If you’re not available, I can get Dan-” Chloe said hurriedly.

“I’ll be fine here,” Sabrina was saying, as if she hadn’t heard Chloe at all. “Like I said, it’s not like she'll want another fight, not in public, and definitely not in a police station if she wants to keep her cover, and I could talk to Ella again?”  
She’d brightened up entirely by that last part - apparently nobody could resist Ella for long.

“If they come looking for you-”

“Then I’ll call. Promise.”

There was a long pause, then Lucifer nodded. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, so quietly that Chloe had to strain her ears to hear it.

Sabrina snorted. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Yes, you’ve demonstrated that,” Lucifer said, and suddenly he was himself again. “Try not to set anyone on fire while I’m gone?” He paused, and added. “Unless it’s your grandmother, in which case firebomb away.”

“That was _one time!_ ”

The words followed them out of the precinct. The moment they were out of Sabrina’s sight, Lucifer’s smile slid off his face, and the expression beneath it was terrible. Chloe stole a sideways look at him.

“I...didn't know your mom was in town. Or...that you were still in touch with your family."

"She is, and...it's complicated."

"That...seemed like a pretty extreme reaction to a family row," Chloe probed. "What did she _say_?”

Lucifer’s teeth were gritted, his lips drawn back in something that showed every one of his teeth, but could not have been mistaken for anything like a smile.

“My mother,” he managed, nearly a snarl, “Has never been particularly good with the idea of grandchildren. She drowned the last batch.”

Chloe screeched to a halt. “She _what_?”

“I’d been kicked out by then, of course, but even I got to hear about it,” Lucifer went on, in a voice that was so level it could almost have been taken for calm, without even breaking stride, and Chloe had to hurry to catch up. “Since she wouldn’t have the kids in the Silver City after that, they came right down to me. A few of them might’ve survived, if only because Noah wasn’t the only person in the Middle East who owned a boat, but…”

Right. Noah. Great Flood. More Devil stuff. Except- Chloe didn’t remember any mentions of drowned half-angelic children in that particular story. Not that it was one she knew all that well, but...if any part of this were true, and she hadn’t followed up on it…

“Didn't- didn't any of your siblings object?” she asked, nausea rising in her throat at the mental images now crowding into her brain one after the other, each more horrifying than the one before.

Lucifer snorted. “Object? To our parents’ will? No, they were all repentance. The sons of God may not lie with the daughters of man and all that...they went and they begged forgiveness and they watched as she-” his jaw worked, and he fell silent.

Chloe stared at him in absolute, stricken horror. “...they watched her drown their own children.”

Lucifer nodded. His eyes were nearly black now. “I didn’t find out until the dead and damned started flooding in,” he added, and snorted mirthlessly. “No pun intended.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone?”

“Who was there to tell?” His voice was bleak. “Dear old Dad put his foot down after a few more plagues, when he wasn’t getting some use out of them himself, but if he ever said a word about the Nephilim, I never got to hear about it.”

“There had to be some kind of authority you could appeal to-”

“Not in the Silver City.”

A picture was starting to emerge, and the horrible thing was how much sense it made. The absolute power that Lucifer attributed to his father, and resented, had seemed like just a combination of his religious fixation and the legacy of childhood abuse, but it fit too well with a cult mentality, now she was looking, for her to ignore it. She’d already assumed some sort of religious fundamentalism in there somewhere, just to explain the name he’d chosen, and his obvious distaste for religion in any form. And if he _had_ grown up in some kind of off-the-grid cult, that would definitely explain the lack of any kind of records until he appeared in Los Angeles six years ago.

“And- You think she’s going to try something similar now?”

Lucifer’s expression grew, if possible, even darker. “Not if she values her skin. _I_ won’t just stand aside and watch.”

She wanted to ask why he’d let his mother back into his life at all, after all that, but stopped herself. Later, she promised herself. Later, she’d ask. And do some digging of her own. There was no statute of limitations on murder, and if any part of this was true, she’d nail Lucifer's parents to the wall for it.

It wasn’t a long drive from the precinct to Doug Kennedy’s apartment, especially not if Lucifer was the one doing the driving. Chloe didn’t even say a word about the speeding this time, too busy with thoughts of where she might start looking for the cult. ‘Silver City’ was something to go off - was that a town name? Or possibly a commune - that seemed more likely, given the lack of records.

The Corvette skidded to a halt outside Kennedy’s apartment building, and Chloe forced her mind back onto the murderer in front of her.

“You okay for this?” she asked, looking at Lucifer.

He nodded. “ _Someone_ might as well face some punishment today.”

His expression was fixed, and furious, and suddenly the fixation on the punishment of the guilty made a lot more sense. He’d already been kicked out by then, he said, but he’d heard about it. When had that been? Sixteen years ago, Lucifer had been somewhere in New England having a bisexual threesome with Sabrina’s other two parents. Before that...he might as well be a ghost.

“Detective?” 

Chloe shook her head. Later. One murderer at a time.

Kennedy’s apartment was a few floors up, and he’d left the door unlocked. Lucifer didn’t say a word about it, which was enough to put the hairs on the back of Chloe’s neck on end. She stepped in, tightening her grip on the gun.

“Doug Kennedy? LAPD,” she called, scanning the apartment. It looked empty. Kennedy might be lying in wait further in, or he might’ve run already. Or assumed that Marla would take the fall, so they could ambush him when he returned.

Of course, it was then that Lucifer’s phone went off. He fumbled for it, rage and terror flashing across his face.

“Sabrina? Are they- He’s there? I’ll-”

Chloe jerked her head. “Go,” she hissed, “I can handle it.” She advanced that bit further into the apartment, her gun aimed at the floor.

“Stay with Ella,” Lucifer was saying behind her. “Hide if you have to- Yes, I know you can- I’ll be there as soon as-”

There was a choking noise and a soft thud behind her, and Chloe wheeled, bringing up the gun, to see Lucifer clawing desperately at a cord looped around his neck, and the shadow of a shorter man behind him. Kennedy.

“Let him go, Doug,” she said, trying to sound calm as she approached them.

“You stay back!” Kennedy yelled. “J-just say back! This is all Ash’s fault! We were gonna make it big, and then Ash said he was going to go solo! He was gonna bail on all of us! I went to smack him and I freaking lost it!”

“You’re making this worse, Doug,” Chloe said, still trying to get a clear shot that wouldn’t go straight through her partner. Lucifer was tall, but Kennedy had pulled him back so far he was bent over backwards, enough that Chloe could see Doug’s face. One well-placed bullet would do it, but if she missed, it would go through Lucifer’s head. No gunshot wound was ever trivial, but even Lucifer’s ability to bounce back from even the most serious injuries wouldn’t survive that. “Let him go.”

“No. If you care about your partner, you drop your gun, now!”

Lucifer snarled. “I don’t have time for this.”

And then-

Chloe wasn’t sure what happened then. It happened too quickly. One moment, Lucifer was struggling against the cord, and the next, Kennedy was crying out, and Chloe had her clear shot as Lucifer pulled away, Kennedy’s grip slackening on the cord even as Chloe’s finger tightened on the trigger.

The next second, Kennedy was lying in a twitching, curled heap on the floor, incoherent with pain, and Lucifer was already disappearing through the bead curtain, without even stopping to pick up his phone.

“Doug Kennedy,” Chloe managed, hurrying to Kennedy’s side. “You’re under arrest.”

He gave no sign that he had heard or understood her. Strike that up to another culprit Lucifer had managed to break. There was blood on the crotch of Kennedy’s jeans when Chloe looked him over, fresh and dark and getting darker. She sighed, and snagged Lucifer’s phone to call for an ambulance.

* * *

Lucifer was still at the station when she got back. So, to her surprise, was Amenadiel. Rather more predictably, they were arguing.  
“-think I’d be a party to-?”

“You were last time.”

“That was different-”

“Yes, more people died.”

“Don’t you think she’s been punished en-”

“Don’t. Finish that sentence.” Lucifer’s voice was barely more than a hiss. “I know punishment. And ten thousand years in the Pit will look like _mercy_ if she lays a finger on Sabrina. Tell her that.”

Chloe filed away ‘the Pit’. It might just be more metaphor, it might not, but it might prove useful either way, if she was going to find the cult that started all this.

“You’re telling me you think she’d do that. To her own granddaughter.”

“She has got a record for this sort of thing.”

“That wasn’t-”

“The same, I know. You’re really telling me you think she wouldn’t?”

Amenadiel was silent.

Lucifer gave a mirthless smile. “That’s what I thought.”

Chloe approached just as Amenadiel was walking away, on fire with curiosity, but already knowing she wasn’t going to get an answer. Not from Lucifer, anyway. Amenadiel...maybe, though she couldn’t help but remember that ‘not the same’, and wonder if he’d been one of the ones who stood aside and watched the drownings. Even if he’d been a kid, even if he’d been brainwashed...it was hard to look past that.

Lucifer turned to look at her.

“...well,” he said. “Turns out Sabrina was never in any actual danger. Sorry for running off on you like that, Detective.”

Chloe shook her head, “It’s fine. I’d do the exact same, if it were Trixie.” She paused, and then, because she had to ask. “Amenadiel...was he...was he one of the ones who…”

“What- Oh, no. Amenadiel’s a thirteen-billion-year-old virgin, or he was until Maze got hold of him.”

She nodded. “And...Sabrina?”

“Still with Ella. They’ve taken rather a shine to each other. In fact, I think the hellspawn might be developing a bit of a crush.”

His voice was light, teasing, but Chloe could feel the tension under it.

“Good, that’s...good.” She paused. “And...your mom?”

“Is not coming anywhere near Sabrina again if I can help it.”

Chloe considered this. “I can help you get a restraining order?”

“It would just be a piece of paper to her.”

Lucifer rubbed at his throat, wincing.

“You okay?” Chloe asked.

“Fine.”

“You _did_ just get garotted.”

“And I’m fine.”

“You got _what_?” demanded a familiar voice. That would be Sabrina.

“I was lightly strangled,” Lucifer said, turning to face his daughter, who was staring at him. She didn’t even look worried, Chloe realised, just stunned.

“ _You_ were? What _with_?”

“No idea, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“How did _you_ get-” Sabrina broke off. Her eyes flicked to Chloe. “I mean...I’m glad you’re okay.”

She smiled that unconvincingly innocent smile again. Lucifer grinned back at her.

“You too, hellion.” He coughed, and added. “Anyway, we’ll just...get out of your hair. I’ve got to see how much damage the cat-proofing has done to my apartment…”

Sabrina went still. “Can- Can we not?” she asked, catching at Lucifer’s hand. “I- I really don’t want to go back there. Not yet.”

For a moment, Chloe could’ve sworn Lucifer’s eyes flashed red.

“...as you like it, hellspawn. Anything you’d like to do with the evening instead?”

Sabrina grinned. “The movies?” she suggested. “There’s probably somewhere showing horror flicks in this town?”

“Done. Anything in particular?”

Sabrina’s grin turned wicked, and suddenly Chloe could see the family resemblance.

“ _The Omen_ series seems...appropriate,” she suggested, all innocence.

Lucifer grimaced. “You delight in tormenting me. All right, _The Omen_ it is. By an _astonishing_ coincidence, the whole series has a showing at the Orpheum in…about an hour.”

Sabrina snorted. “Since when does the Orpheum do random all-night horror marathons?”

“Since someone there owes me a favour,” Lucifer replied, patting his pockets for his phone. Chloe produced it.

“You left it at Doug Kennedy’s apartment,” she said, handing it over. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the precinct.”

She brushed past them, already heading out. Trixie’s latest babysitter would need relieved, and Chloe...Chloe had some research to do.


End file.
